Norwegian Jewel

Allen

Horrible experience. It was my first and last cruise. Nothing was as advertised. We were bored to death, and we actually lost eight pounds collectively during the 4 days we were on the cruise.

They advertise Freestyle cruising where you can dine at any of their ten restaurants at your leisure. BS. They didn't tell us we needed to make reservations for these places before boarding. They were fully booked when we left port so we could only go to the food court/buffet. I always heard that cruises were famous for midnight buffets. Not these people. The buffet shut down around ten at night. There was 24 hour room service which had three menu items: Hot dogs, hamburgers and chicken tenders. The side item was french fries, nothing else. All of it was cold and stale. There was one place that was open 24/7 but it was the place where the room service guys picked up the three menu items. No bar, no buffet, just the same three items.

We managed to finagle our way into a steak restaurant. We learned AFTER we waited two hours to get in that their items aren't included in the cruise cost, so we paid $30 each for the smallest steaks I've ever seen (think a McDonald hamburger patty), cold asparagus and powdered mashed potatoes.

Water was scarce. They only sold bottled water at port and it was $8 a bottle for a one liter Deer Park. I don't mind tap water so I figured I could just take a cup and get some at the soda fountain...not after 10PM. The food court shut down so the only beverages left were 10oz cups of soda that room service would bring.

My wife and I lost 8lbs collectively on the trip. I've never felt so sick in my life from the food and this is coming from someone who is not picky at all...I'll eat fast food, mall food, anything...the food on this cruise was horrible.

The room was actually really nice. When we first boarded, we thought we'd hit the jackpot. Not huge, but spacious considering it was a ship. We had a balcony and a queen sized bed.

The bed was rock hard, but what can you expect on a cruise. The balcony would've been more enjoyable if it wasn't so hot and humid but they couldn't control that...hey we're in the middle of the ocean. With no entertainment whatsoever on board (the stuff they offered was awful) we spent a lot of time in the room...watching the same four movies over and over.

This is a cruise ship for your grandparents. We were 25 when we went and we're not exactly the typical 20-somethings. We enjoy a good time but we don't look to party and get drunk, still we would prefer something fun. They had shuffleboard, tennis, basketball and an arcade. The arcade was for younger kids. The sports were always full. The other stuff like the shows were just boring. We tried two but it just wasn't interesting.

We never got to book any. When we got on board the line was insanely long. I'm talking fifty people in line with two or three people at the kiosk. I went back down and the line was either still wrapped around the stateroom or they'd shut down for the day.

We weren't able to do any excursions. We couldn't even get a ride from port to the beach. We ended up walking three miles.

Awful. I will never go on another cruise again. My wife cried twice on the ship and I felt bad because it seemed like we were trapped. We're the type of people who try to make the most of everything, but there was nothing to do. The food was bad, the staff was very rude. We're not pompous or demanding. Simple questions like, "Where is the onboard store" were met with people ignoring us, pretending not to hear us or just saying that they were busy."

I have never been so thirsty in my life. We bought the $10 cups so that we could get refills of drinks but the only thing we could get was soda and after the restaurants shut down for their "lunch-dinner" break or shut down completely at 10pm...we were out of luck.

We came back dehydrated and lost a good amount of weight on the trip. Never again.